Baseball favorite Don Zimmer dies at age 83

In this Oct. 29, 1999 photo, Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer waves as his float makes its way through the Canyon of Heroes during a ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan celebrating the Yankees' World Series victory over the Atlanta Braves. Zimmer is wearing the helmet he put on after getting hit by a foul ball off the bat of Yankees batter Chuck Knoblauch during the playoffs.

“Don’t blame them all on me,” Zimmer once said. “I got traded after the first 30 days.”

Zimmer was the 1989 NL Manager of the Year with the Cubs and was at Yankee Stadium for three perfect games, by Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series and by David Cone and David Wells in the late 1990s.

“Zim was a great man, and there are no words to explain what he brought to us and what he meant to me,” Rays star Evan Longoria said.

“He taught me a lot of things, and those days of sitting in the dugout with him will be missed,” he said.

Said Rays pitcher David Price: “Zim was a very special person to all of us. A very special person in baseball, period.”

“He always lit everybody’s faces up whenever he’d walk in,” he said. “Zim had a passion for baseball that rubs off on everybody.” Zimmer is survived by his wife; son Thomas, a scout with the San Francisco Giants; daughter Donna, and four grandchildren.